Nu50Who
by Princess Twila
Summary: The Doctor's massive intellect...the inhuman speed and strength of Superman...only together will they possibly be enough to face one of the greatest foes that has ever threatened Metropolis. This is not my own story; I am publishing this story for a friend who does not have a fanfiction account. A heads-up for the readers: you're in for a great ride!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"You're quite right to. And I suppose… this is my last chance to say it. Rose Tyler-"

Without warning, the fragile thread of communication between the Doctor and his former companion snapped, leaving the last Time Lord standing alone in the expansive TARDIS.

The Doctor blinked, jarred by the sudden closing of the small window between universes. Finally, he wiped the tears he hadn't noticed streaming down his face and strolled over to the controls, more out of habit than to set a course to any particular destination. It took him a moment to notice the flashing red light on one panel. Staring at the monitor, it took him still longer to snap out of his lonely, love-addled state and actually process what the TARDIS was trying to tell him.

"Still picking up readings of void energy… but that would mean that the barrier between universes only closed in Pete's world, not this one."

He paused, waiting for Rose to respond in her usual, not-quite-understanding way. Then he of course remembered that Rose was trapped in Pete's world, and it wasn't likely that she would answer from there. Shaking his head at his own foolishness, the Doctor continued, more out of habit than anything else.

"But it's more than that… readings are coming through from the other side of the hole. But if that's true, it means that the Daleks could conceivably get through, released into an unsuspecting universe."

The Doctor stopped talking, weighing his options. He was under no particular obligation to follow his most hated foe. The war was long over. The Daleks in this universe were finally dead and gone. If he wanted, he could stop fighting the fight that had haunted him for so long. For a moment, he considered what his previous life would have done. Back then, he probably would have dived head first into such a "fantastic" opportunity to rid all of creation from the stink of the Daleks. And he almost certainly would have been grinning ear to ear while doing it. But that was then. The Doctor saw himself as a different man now. At the very least, he had the new teeth; he couldn't grin and bellow "fantastic" nearly as well as he used to. But more than that, his time with Rose had calmed him. He wasn't against blowing up buildings, but he wasn't quite as prone to it as he had been. Something about Rose's charming, simple, human manner had reined him in.

Rose… if the Daleks had escaped, it was all for nothing. She would still be trapped, but the single greatest threat to all life would still run rampant. That decided it. Rapidly calculating how to best to navigate the TARDIS through the gap between worlds, the Doctor ran around the controls, pulling levers and punching buttons. As the familiar roaring sound of the engines started up, he grinned despite himself. Sure, he was endangering the boundaries of the universe by plowing headlong towards places that he was not meant to go. But he was going to see something new! After centuries of traveling, the Doctor found no greater pleasure than arriving somewhere that he had never been. As the roaring of the engines reached its peak, the Doctor yanked one final lever.

"Allons-y!"

* * *

It was as quiet as it ever got in the Daily Planet news room, and for that, Clark Kent was extremely grateful. After his exhausting battle against Vyndktvx, the mad imp from the fifth dimension, he still felt like his brain was tied in knots. No doubt all that he had seen would make more sense in the future, as he crossed paths with the vengeful magician again, but trying to piece together what parts of his life had been, or would be, changed in the demon's obsessive quest for vengeance was too much to deal with right now. While he would love to fly up to the stratosphere and bathe in sunlight for three or four hours, typing out an article at a slow, human pace was relaxing in its own way.

"Hey Smallville. Still obsessing over your name-making story?"

Smiling without looking up, Clark kept typing. "Why yes, Lois. I am still writing a piece about Glenmorgan."

"Dude, why? You got him! You pulled up enough dirt that he decided to come clean. Well, that and being trapped in a bottle with the rest of us in an alien spaceship. And Superman jumping off a fifty story building while carrying him. But you still played a part."

At the sound of the second voice, Clark did look up. Jimmy was leaning against his desk, idly pushing his bright red hair out of his eyes. His camera was hanging around his neck, partially covering the graphic on a tee-shirt of some movie Clark had probably never seen. Lois, on the other hand, had decided to sit in the empty desk across from Clark's, wearing a loose sweatshirt and draining the remains of what was most likely her third latte of the day. Sighing, Clark leaned back in his chair.

"Alright, what is it? Don't you guys have work to do?"

Lois laughed. "I finished my piece on the bridge being rebuilt half an hour ago. And I doubt Jimmy is going to find any good shots in the news room. A least not when it's as slow as it is today."

Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, it's not like you're giving me anything good to shoot. Not exactly an action packed story you've got."

"So? I guess you two are going to get lunch?"

"Wow, that's a real superpower you've got there, being able to read minds like that, Smallville."

"Alright, I guess this is good enough to send to the editor." Closing the computer, Clark got up, grabbed his bag, and followed his friends to the elevator.

The walk to the diner was, as always, full of distractions. Even keeping his super-hearing limited to just the goings-on of Metropolis, there was still a city-worth of noise to process. The cars and machinery he had learned to disregard soon after moving from the country. That just left the sounds of several million voices to piece through. It was no wonder that Lois gave him such a hard time for seeming absent minded. Even with the ability to think faster than any human could even dream of, it was a lot to listen to.

"Hey, Clark, you're still coming to see '_The Vampire of Venus_' tonight, right?" The sound of his friend's voice yanked Clark back down to earth. He smiled, pretending that he had just been lost in thought.

"Jim, I already told you, I'm not seeing any more movies that have a monster and a planet in the title. Not that '_Killer Women from Pluto_' wasn't great, but I'm not going through that again."

Lois shot him a friendly glare. "Oh, so women are monsters now?"

"I, well, that's not what I said, Lois. What I meant-"

"No, I heard, you clearly said no monsters in the title, and then you said women. Of all the misogynistic things that you could say-"

Before Lois could launch into her rant, a massive shriek of strained metal rang out, cutting through the din of the busy city. Like a nightmarish transformer, one of the 18 wheelers down the street had reared up, turning into a vaguely humanoid killing machine. A great robotic voice screamed the all-too-familiar cry.

"BOW! BEFORE! METALEK!" Even as it gave the command, it started firing its converted weapons into the crowd.

Lois snapped into action reporter mode.

"Jimmy, pictures! Try to get as close as you can, and keep an eye out for the authorities! Clark, you… Clark?"

Before she had even finished telling Jimmy what to do, Clark had joined the fleeing crowd. The indestructible Kryptonian finery that he now wore had many advantages over his old tee-shirt and jeans costume, but he still needed a place to get out of his human clothes. Looking around, he quickly found one. There was what looked like a blue phone box about halfway down an alley. It looked like a skinny man in a long brown coat had just left. Not perfect, but hopefully he wouldn't get a good look at Clark's face as he ran by to change. And there certainly wasn't time to find a better spot. After all, this was a job for Superman!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The TARDIS was shaking a whole lot more than she normally did when coming in for a landing. Clearly, this universe was much farther from the Doctor's than Pete's world was. Although technically, he mused, all universes were overlapping, so it wasn't so much having to travel so far so much as having to get the TARDIS to cut through… shaking his head, he went back to work on his new toy. He definitely needed to get a new mate to travel with. Rose had done wonders for keeping him focused.

Switching the setting on his screwdriver once last time, he gave the device a final once over. Satisfied, he looked at it for a moment. It looked like a video recorder from the earth during the 1980s because, well, that's what it was. However, with the changes he had made, the Void-Stuff Finder would be able to see the residue of the void even if there were objects in the way, AND it would tell him how far away it was. It would also deflate tires if pointed at them for too long, so he hoped there weren't too many cars wherever he ended up. He just wished he had someone to explain it to. Being brilliant just wasn't as fun when there was no one to notice.

Finally, the TARDIS came to a shuddering halt. The Doctor looked at one of the monitors above the controls, trying to see where he was. Apparently, he was in a city called Metropolis. He smiled at that. He had been to a few Metroplises; they tended to be good fun. He looked for a date, and then gave a startled cry.

"Earth 2007? That can't be right at all; they don't build a Metropolis on Earth until at least the thirty-eighth century!"

He paused to consider the implications of this discovery. He was in a universe way different from his own. With the walls already stretched so thin, he should leave before they snapped entirely. He should get out, he should really… really… Despite the danger, he broke into a slow grin. In a flash, he was dashing out the door, putting on his favorite brown trench coat on the way.

After locking the door behind him, the Doctor took a look around. The city looked normal enough, if a bit like Manhattan or Philadelphia did at that time. Except there were screams and what sounded like the sounds of damaged machinery coming from the end of the alley in which he was parked. Well, maybe he'd be able to do some good here after all. He had started out at an easy pace, when suddenly a tall, dark haired human with a baggy sweatshirt and a backpack ran right past him. He watched the man keep going, headed right for the TARDIS. He hoped he wouldn't have to explain why the door didn't open. Except a second after the man reached the door, it did open with a sharp crack! The doctor felt his jaw drop open. For a moment, words failed him.

"What?"

Even as he let out his eloquent response, a blue and read streak came flying out of the TARDIS, moving far too fast for the Doctor to see what it was.

"What?!"

Then, as quick as it had gone, the man returned, floating a few feet above the TARDIS. He seemed to stare at the box for a few moments, and then shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then, he floated lower to the ground, around the whole TARDIS, clearly looking for the extra space. After finishing the circle, he landed and strode into the still open door. After a moment, he walked out once more, clearly confused. It was then that he seemed to notice the Doctor for the first time.

The pair stared at each other for less than a second. Had he been human, the Doctor wouldn't have had enough time to glean any useful information. As it was, he saw enough to make him all the more intrigued, and even more confused.

The human - if he was human – was tall. He hadn't gotten a proper measure of how tall at his first glance, when the man had first run by. He seemed to hold himself differently now, straighter. Something, be it the hands-on-hips stance, the piercing blue eyes, (_too blue to belong to a human, surely_) or the neat spit curl in the hair (_Had he managed to comb as well as change? I could swear his hair had been messy_) exuded confidence. The man was fairly thin, though extremely well defined in his tight clothing. If he did in fact possess the strength to simply force through the TARDIS's defenses, it didn't give him an extremely muscular frame. But the most garish thing, what even a human would notice, was his clothing.

Gone were the jeans and sweatshirt, the glasses and backpack. Instead, the man wore one of the gaudiest outfits the Doctor had ever seen. Most of it was made of a blue material, trimmed and segmented by thin red lines. Although it moved like a fabric, the suit had an almost metallic sheen to it, and the doctor was willing to bet that it was a good deal stronger than it looked. The man's chest was emblazoned with a burst of color, some sort of triangular crest. Brief inspection showed that it was a red "s"-shaped symbol on a field of yellow. A red belt wrapped around the hips, separating the blue that otherwise stretched from shoulder to the knee-high red boots. A cape of the same color hung from his shoulders, reaching all the way down to his ankles. Just as the Doctor finished his visual sweep, the man's eyes met his. He gave a single nod, then flew off, too fast for even the Doctor to follow. The Doctor stood in place for a moment, thinking about what he had just seen; he shrugged and walked back to the TARDIS, pulling out his screwdriver as he did so. Pulling the door closed, he gave the handle a quick once over with the business end of his tool. It wouldn't keep out determined intruders, but it would stop the passerby. Satisfied, he put his screwdriver back in his jacket, and began looking through his Void-Stuff Finder. Bizarrely-empowered humans aside, he had a job to do.

* * *

Superman only had scant few moments to consider what he had just seen as he flew towards the Metalek driver. Lucky for him, his brain was just as fast as the rest of his body, and now he didn't have to worry about his friends interrupting.

First, the phone booth. Disregarding the fact that he had had to use far too much strength to get through the door, something like that couldn't exist! It was so much larger on the inside than it had any right to be. He hadn't taken a tour through it, but the painfully confusing view when he tried to scan it with x-ray vision led him to believe that it was at least the size of a fairly large mansion, though he couldn't be sure. Trying to look in had felt like a human felt when putting on prescription glasses too strong for them: blurry, confusing, and likely to give a headache.

The man, he was a different story. The incredibly useful combination of Superman's kryptonian abilities and his skills as a reporter had provided all kinds of useful details that would have slipped by average people. Tall man, very thin, hair playfully gelled to stick up in the front. Apparently very fond of the color brown, with dark brown hair and eyes, a brown riding coat, some sort of brown suit jacket, with matching brown pants. Light brown sneakers. Even the vintage Super 8 camera he was carrying was brown.

From there, though, things got strange. First was the silver device hidden in a jacket pocket. Ordinarily, Superman tried to avoid using x-ray vision on someone with good reason, but the impossible box had left him curious. He knew the device wasn't from Earth, but other than that, it was like nothing he had ever seen. He would have to see if there was anything matching the description in the Archive Satellite's computer banks when he got the chance. But the tool, if that's what it was, was only the second most intriguing thing the scan had revealed.

The man clear wasn't human, no matter what his outwards appearance suggested. Even if one failed to notice the dark eyes, which held the weight of years far beyond what a human would ever see, the fact that he had two hearts was a dead giveaway. However, as far as Superman could tell, that was his real form, not a disguise. And that was all he could gather for sure. For the rest, a good deal of assumption was involved.

First, the second heart. Clearly part of the creature's body required blood in such a huge magnitude that an entire duplicate organ was needed. Based on the speed of the man's eyes as he had looked over Superman, and the knowing gleam that he had seen when the pair had locked eyes, he was willing to bet that the extra blood was going to the brain. If that was the case, the man almost certainly had higher brain functions than his appearance would indicate.

Then there was the face. Focused almost to the point of somber, but with clear smile lines around the eyes. Concentrated, but at the same time prone to being outwardly positive. Then, the clothing and the hair. The hair had clearly been cared for, with product and the like. And the clothes were fairly dressy, if a little worn. But at the same time, the sneakers suggested that he wasn't overly fashion-conscious, but thought about function as well.

Finally, the location of the device, whatever it was. By the very nature of his job as the self-appointed protector of the city, Superman had seen a lot of concealed weapons. What they tended to have in common was that they were located somewhere they would be easily drawn, regardless of clothing. The silver thing was located conveniently enough that it could be pulled out frequently, but not at the split-second speeds preferred for sudden combat. So probably just an extremely useful tool, but not used for defense.

And then he had to bring his musings to a halt, since he had finally gotten to the site of the rampaging machine. Fortunately, most of the people on the street had already cleared the area, so Superman didn't have to hold back avoid hurting them. Usually, he tried to avoid undue damage to property, but the Metalek driver had already begun to smash through a bank. Taking a brief moment to line himself up properly, Superman flew forward, aimed directly at the creature's head…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Whatever was going on outside was raising an absolutely awful racket. Even from inside and from what seemed to be a block – hmmm, no, make that two blocks – away, it was loud enough for the Doctor to hear from the tenth story office building he was investigating. He paused for a second to listen. An astounding amount of metallic clanking and crashing, gunfire, and… cheers? He frowned, trying to concentrate on the noise. Yup, cheering. He shook his head, and went back to looking through the Void-Stuff finder. Whatever this world was, it was an odd one. He listened, this time to the sounds of the deserted office space. The finder identified something that had come through the void, which was apparently just down this hallway, and he wanted to get an idea of what. The Doctor was fairly sure he knew what he was going to find, but he had to hope he was wrong.

As if to dash his hopes, at that moment, the distinctive sound of an energy weapon going off came from up ahead, followed by muffled robotic screeching. Quick as he could, the Doctor began sprinting down the hall, Void-Stuff finder stowed, screwdriver at the ready. Not that he had any sort of plan; he just hoped he could draw the fire from whatever the laser was being shot at.

His run came to a screeching halt as some sort of missile went whizzing by his head, so close it brushed his hair. It hit the wall with a wet crack, spraying droplets of some sort of liquid on his coat. He bent down to investigate. Lightly touching the crushed cylinder with the screw driver, the Doctor raised an eyebrow at the markings and the liquid seeping onto the floor. He dipped a finger into the quickly spreading puddle, bringing it up to his tongue to confirm his suspicions. Yup. Definitely soda.

"Probably cola," he muttered, before turning his attention back to the sounds of the room.

Well, there certainly was a lot of gunfire happening in there, enough for at least four or five combatants. Or perhaps just one with a lot of arms. And there it was again: the laser going off, followed by that voice. That hated, all-too-familiar voice, so high-pitched and grating and totally unreal. That computerized voice that always seemed so frantic, even when it was completely in control.

"Exterminate! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

Alright. Probably best to wait until a victor emerged, even though it would probably be the Dalek. But trying to stop a firefight in progress seemed like a marvelous way to regenerate a little earlier than he might want. Even so, it couldn't hurt to take a peek, could it? Just to see what he was dealing with. Slowly, the Doctor edged up to the doorway, and eased his head around the corner.

For a second, the Doctor couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a large office space, just like the one he had come from. However, it had been completely trashed. Scraps of shredded paper fluttered through the air. What used to be a copy machine sat burning in the corner. The walls and cubicles were pocked with laser blasts and bullet holes. Standing defiantly in the middle of the room was the Dalek, screaming its little metal head off and blasting away with its laser. As the doctor watched, another can slammed directly into it, fast enough to shatter bone. Even as the can burst, the Dalek's shield kicked in, sending a cloud of vaporized iced tea floating into the air.

On the other side of the room, as defiant as their foe, stood… a copy machine, a personal printer, and a vending machine. Well. They had pulled a weapon from somewhere. And what looked like faces had been built into them, somehow.

For a moment, the Doctor couldn't even believe what he was seeing. A Dalek of Skaros, scourge of the universe, enemy of all creation, fighting a soda machine.

A tap on his shoulder brought the Doctor back down to earth. Startled, he turned around. Standing next to him was the flying person from earlier. After a moments consideration (accompanied by an extremely awkward silence), the Doctor put on his most winning smile and stuck out a hand.

"Hi. I'm the Doctor."

The man grasped the hand firmly, giving a smile of his own. "Superman."

The Doctor raised an amused eyebrow. "Superman, eh? So that's what the S is for. I kind of like it. Bit over the top, if you ask me, but then, who am I to talk? I decided to go with 'The man who fixes people,' bit prententious now that I think about it…" The Doctor felt his train of thought trailing off, as it so often did when dealing with new people. Superman was staring at him, clearly a bit confused.

"Anyway. How about this, the two of us meeting up twice in the same day? What are the odds?"

"Well, you're standing in a building that seems to be the site of a Metalek incursion. I had just finished handling the Metalek drivers in the street, so it makes sense for me to be here."

"Metalek… OH. You mean the violent copy machines! Oh good, saves me the trouble of having to think of a name. Except those have probably been taken care of already."

"I heard the shooting from outside, but it seemed to have stopped by the time I got here."

And sure enough, the shooting had stopped while they were talking. All the Doctor heard was the faint sound of the idle computers and climate control. What worried him more was what he couldn't hear.

"I should take a look inside anyway."

Before he could say anything, the Doctor watched in horror as Superman casually walked through the door. Almost immediately, the Dalek started screaming again.

"Non-native life form detected! Detain and extract information concerning pertinent technologies!"

Non-native? Now that was interesting. Of course, it was also somewhat reassuring. So not all the men in this universe could fly and break through impenetrable barriers. Just the Supermen. The technologies part, that didn't make sense. The Daleks could have a lot of names attached to them, but stupid wasn't one of them. The Doctor had no idea how they did it, what with their suction cup appendages, but when they needed something built, they built it themselves. He put that thought aside for later, and cautiously looked into the room once more.

The Metaleks had been destroyed, their shattered forms scattered against the far wall. A few ruptured cans spilled different colored drinks out of the jagged hole in the largest one's "chest". Superman stood about ten feet from the Dalek, his back to the Doctor. His cape had a black insignia on it, the same shape as the more colorful symbol on his chest. The Dalek was rolling towards him, its eyestalk on Superman's face.

"Subject will kneel!"

"So you're what destroyed those Metalek drivers. I guess I should be saying thank you for saving me the trouble."

For a second, the Doctor couldn't believe how calm Superman's voice was. Then again, this was the first time he had seen a Dalek. To him, the Dalek just looked like a big barrel with three odd appendages and some lights sticking out of it. The Dalek, however, was still rolling forward.

"Repeat! Subject will kneel!"

"Now calm down, there's no need for that. Tell me what you need, and I'll see if I can help."

The Dalek continued moving forward, finally stopping about two feet in front of Superman. When it next spoke, its voice had taken a higher, more annoyed pitch.

"Subject remains defiant! Actin will be taken to ensure co-op-er-ation!"

Almost too fast for the Doctor to follow, its weapon dropped towards the floor. When it went off, there was a small explosion, and a hole was blasted beneath Superman's right foot, causing him to lose balance and fall to a knee. Before he could right himself or move to resist, the Dalek's gripping appendage shot forward, attaching itself to his face. Even as he watched in horror, the Doctor reflected on how it was lucky that Superman wasn't wearing the glasses. The side thought was brought to a halt as Superman gave a scream of pain. In a second, the Doctor was in the room.

"No, STOP!"

The Dalek let go of Superman, who collapsed to the floor. Its sole eye swiveled to come to a halt on the Doctor.

"Subject identified. Doct-toooooooor."

"What are you doing here? And what did you do to him?"

"Subject was scanned for information to aid the fulfillment of the mis-sion."

Sometimes, if you could keep a Dalek talking long enough, it would give you exactly what you needed to know. It seemed to the Doctor that this might be one of those times. "Mission, what mission?"

"The preservation of the Daaaaah-leks."

"Preserve? What do you mean, preserve? It's too late for that! You're all floating around in the void, you and the Cybermen both! You're all that's free of that prison, and not for long if I have anything to say about it!"

For a moment, the Dalek was silent, the light of its eye dimmed. Then, it lit up once more.

"Transmission sent."

The Doctor's blood ran cold. He had gotten too confident. He had been certain that only one Dalek had escaped into this universe. Dangerous, certainly, but simple enough to deal with. But if this one was sending transmissions, it meant that more had escaped. And if the Doctor knew anything, Daleks in groups were very good at becoming world-ending threats very quickly. Now he was in trouble, and somehow he doubted he could count on an omnipotent Rose to show up and save him again.

Even as he thought that, the Dalek spoke once more.

"Transmission confirms. Presence of the Doc-tor is a detriment to the mis-sion."

The Doctor heard the faint sound of a weapon charging.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!"

**Author's Notes:** Hi, I'm the author. My real name is Steven Moffat, but I don't like people knowing that, so from this point I shall be known only as Doomclown. I'm going to be putting author's notes at the end of chapters from this point forward, since this site doesn't let you do that, I guess? I dunno, the point is that now I'm adding my own little comments at the end, since I guess you're already accustomed to reading the stuff that comes out of my head. And this one is a bit long, since I have to type out an introduction. Which I just did. Anyway, if you have questions, put them in a review, and read the rest of my lovely host's writings. If you're into the series she is writing about. I'm not (Sorry, by the way), but I'm sure it's all fabulous stuff.

Anyway, now that all the housekeeping is out of the way, time for witty and insightful comments on my terrible bastardization of two iconic characters. Sorry for no Superman POV this chapter, and for leaving it on a cliff hanger. The Doctor's part just drags out foreeeeeeever (He's the first POV in the next chapter. Spoilers.) But it's a sacrifice that we all must make, because once all the dry justifications and exposition is out of the way, we can move on to what I am writing this for, and presumably one of the reasons you are reading this: Superman Punching Daleks Into Orbit. Stay tuned, folks! The ride continues!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

As the Dalek fired, the Doctor dove to the side, landing behind a desk. He frantically tried to think of a plan, keeping his head down to avoid any more blasts.

After about five seconds, he began to wonder why the Dalek hadn't fired again, punching through his feeble cover. Then he heard the crunch of metal.

"Primary weapon disabled! Casing integrity compromised! Release me!" Confused, the Doctor looked up.

The Dalek was floating five feet off the ground, its gun a tangled stump. But it wasn't held aloft by its suits propulsion system. Superman was floating as well, his right hand buried in the side of the Dalek. The Doctor blinked, stunned. He wasn't entirely sure what a Dalek's armor was made of. He was sure that it was extraordinarily difficult to damage. But there Superman was, up to his forearm in the suit, not looking overly fussed. Well, a bit fussed. He was giving the Dalek a glare that made the Doctor's knees shake. When he spoke, his voice held more menace than the Doctor imagined possible.

"You know, I generally don't care what people do to me. Sure, that was a bit painful, but I've had worse."

Muffled sounds of stressed metal came from the Dalek. It appeared that Superman was squeezing whatever he was gripping in the suit.

"But then you tried to kill someone. In front of me. Now I'm going to say this once. If someone is on this planet, they are under _my_ protection. Understood?"

The Dalek rotated its eye to meet Superman' face.

"Sentiment is a weakness that the Daaah-leks do not share. Nor do we possess fear. We exist solely to exteeeerminate non-Dalek life!"

For a moment, Superman seemed shocked. Slowly, he raised his other hand, balled into a fist.

"Alright then."

As his fist flew forward, the lights on the Dalek's head lit up.

"Emergency temporal shift engaged!"

There was a brief wavering in the air, and suddenly Superman struck the empty space where the Dalek had been a moment before. The Doctor stood up, straightening his coat.

"Well. That could have gone better."

* * *

Superman stared at the man calmly adjusting his clothes in the ruined office. He tried to share the Doctor's nonchalant attitude. Despite what he had said while threatening the creature, that suction thing had hurt… a lot. He floated towards the man.

"What was that?"

The Doctor looked up at him. He was carefully keeping his face blank, but Superman saw the fear in his eyes.

"That was a Dalek. Which of course means nothing to you, since it's not from around here. Let's see, how to describe it… Alright, so picture hate, and evil, and malice, and they were all rolled up into one, and given physical form. That would be a Dalek."

Superman nodded, a bit skeptical. He was fairly certain that he had already met the embodiment of evil, but he let the Doctor continue.

"I'm sorry, by the way. They shouldn't be here, in this universe. If I had known they could possibly have gotten loose, I would have been much more careful."

"Wait, what do you mean, in this universe? Where are they from? Where are _you_ even from?"

Before the Doctor continued, he walked into one of the wrecked cubicles, pulling out two rolling chairs. He sat down, gesturing for Superman to take the other chair. After a brief hesitation, Superman floated down, landing in a seated position. He leaned forward, waiting for the Doctor to answer. The Doctor sprawled into his own chair, tilting his head back before answering.

"A lot of the time, when people think of 'the universe,' they picture all of everything, ever. Which is kind of true, in that universe. But there are other universes, which also have all of everything ever, but not the _same_ everything as the others. And they all overlap. You following me?"

Superman nodded, thinking back to the monstrous "corporate Superman." The creature had jumped from reality to reality, killing off "the competition," that is to say, other Supermen. The Doctor continued.

"In between these layered universes, there's a place called the void, which is totally empty. Except it isn't empty, it's full of voidy stuff, which has a very distinctive energy signature. I had thought the Daleks where extinct, but some were hiding in the void. When they escaped into my universe, I was able to suck them back into the void, using a machine that attracted the voidy stuff. Picture them as iron filings, and the void as a giant magnet."

"So they're in the void. How did they get here?"

The Doctor spread his hands and shrugged. "I don't know for sure. If something had weakened the barrier between this universe and the void, it's possible that some Daleks could slip through."

Superman frowned, idly resting his head on his folded hands. He still didn't know exactly how Vyndktvx had attacked him, but it was entirely possible that it had somehow damaged the damaged the fabric of reality. The maniacal imp had seemed obsessed with killing him, regardless of the cost to the three-dimensional world. As he contemplated it, the Doctor spoke again.

"Which brings me to why they were here. As in here, in this building. What is this place?"

Superman sat up, looking around.

"I think it's one of those up and coming research companies. Lexcorp, or something like that. That thing, the Dalek, said it was looking for 'advanced technologies." I guess this was as good a place as any to start."

The Doctor stood up and began pacing. "Even though this is a different universe, the technological knowledge of this version of Earth shouldn't be that much more advanced than it was in my version. If the Daleks intend to 'preserve their species,' they most likely intend to get the others out of the void. Now, on my earth humanity WAS able to get through to the void, but that was only because of willing help from the other side."

He stopped suddenly, turning to face Superman.

"Think: do you know of anything, anything at all, that the humans have built that can go to another universe? Or reports of a machine that summons 'ghosts'?"

Superman thought for a moment.

"Not that I have heard of."

The Doctor's brow furrowed. He went back to pacing, looking at the floor. "And the Daleks clearly don't have the ability to jump forward in time-"

"Hold on. Jump forward in time?"

The Doctor waved an impatient hand, not looking up.

"Yes, time travel, possible. Anyway, clearly they can't do that now, or they would keep jumping forward until they reached a time when some sort of gate or projection field had been invented. But they must have found something when they searched your memory, otherwise why send the transmission?"

Realization began to dawn on Superman. "Doctor… there are other life forms in the galaxy. They may have invented something."

The Doctor stopped again.

"Won't do them any good. Without ships, temporal shifting is the only way they can travel long distances, and even that wouldn't get them past Saturn."

"No, what I mean is that there was this AI, the Collector. It had a ship full of alien artifacts, which is still parked in orbit."

The Doctor looked up, clearly thinking.

"Well… they couldn't use just anything, there would need to be some type of dimensional portal. And that's hard to do at any technological level, so it's not likely that there's one up there."

He met Superman's eyes. "Is it?"

Thinking, Superman went over all the technologies he had catalogued. There was that one piece, the one that Professor Xadu has escaped from. But he wasn't sure how it worked. He looked up to see the Doctor standing over him, looking more concerned than before.

"Well. There is the Phantom Zone portal."

"Phantom Zone? What's that? I haven't heard of it."

"I'm still reading through the Kryptonian records, but it seems to be a dimension where dangerous criminals were sent."

"And what's it like? Are there any descriptions of what's inside?"

"Nothing, nothing's in there. That's the point, no distractions as the criminals can reflect on their…" His voice faded away as the realization hit him. By the look on the Doctor's face, he figured it out too.

"We need to get to the satellite. Now."

"Yes. I need to get back to the TARDIS. I can lock onto the most powerful energy signa-"

"Back to the what?"

The Doctor was already jogging down the hall. Superman flew down after him, before slowing down to keep pace. "TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. My ship. The phone box."

Superman thought back to the odd box where he had first seen the Doctor. Just thinking about that much space jammed into that little space had given him a headache.

"Yes, before you ask, it is larger on the inside. Time Lord technology, you get to it. Here's the elevator."

Superman gave a snort of laughter.

"Doctor, if these Daleks are as dangerous as you say, the world is at stake. If you don't mind, there is a faster way."

Without waiting for an answer, he firmly grabbed the Doctor by the arms, and flew out the shattered window he had flown in earlier. At first he felt bad for not being able to give more warning before flying at high speeds. Then he heard the doctor, laughing like a child.

"Oh, this is fantastic! Allons-y!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Yup, short one today, guys. Now, before you start commenting and messaging my dear publisher (who from this point on will be referred to as M for simplicity's sake), it is largely my fault that this thing has such irregular updates. I have like 90% of it handwritten, but I am hugely lazy when it comes to typing it. Dear M, being the understanding soul she is, posts them once I send the updates to her.

Anyway, this chapter is kind of short, but it got all the plot stuff out of the way. HANDS IN THE AIR, WE'RE AT THE TOP OF THE COASTER!

Also, for those who are into that sort of thing, it is safe assume that Supes and the Doctor make out as soon as they land.


End file.
